Hey, gang! Hope you had a great weekend!
It was beautiful here in Chicago - dry, not too hot! But the weekend was made even more enjoyable by a visit from two of my closest friends and Real Estate Colleagues.
Beginning roughly 4 1/2 years ago, at the suggestion of Michael Pallin from The Floyd Wickman Team, I built on an already-established bond I had with a couple of other strong-producing Real Estate People - and good Business People - from other parts of the U.S., to form what Mike referred to as an R Group.
My own "Responsibility Group," consists of three - Norman O'Grady, of Prime Realty Group in Boston MA, Bob Daniel, of Prudential One Realtors in Westchester OH - a suburb of Cincinnati, and myself, from the North Side of Chicago.
We all share the same approximate level of Real Estate Sales Production, the same Hard Work Ethic, and the same Core Values, as Floyd Wickman and his trainers like to call them.
The three of us generally meet personally only two or three times each year - once being in each other's home cities, on an alternating basis, each July (this year, Bob and Norm came to Chicago; next year, Bob and I will travel to Boston to visit Norm; in 2011, Norm and I are off to Cincinnati to Bob's home town).
Each summer, and again in January, we get together as part of Floyd Wickman's Semi Annual Forum get togethers - about 60-70 agents mentoring Floyd and his people, in a suburb of Detroit MI.
But the cool thing - the powerful thing - the connected thing - involves what the three of us do in between our personal meetings.
We phone conference!
Every two weeks, on a free bridge line (we use FreeConferenceCall.com, and call a MN bridge line number), we get together on the phone for about 45 minutes, early in the morning, at a set, early time.
The agenda for our call is simple, yet very powerful -
First, we discuss "Good News" - what has happened in the past two weeks that really made us feel "alive."
We move on to our "Stats" - contacts made, appointments attended, listing and buyer clients served, referrals generated, and the like. How did these stats compare with commitments we made in the previous R Group call.
And, don't underestimate the power in the numbers! You need these stats - because if you don't know where you are now, how can you plan where you want to be next?
Third is our "Parade of Techniques" - tips and ideas one of us has come up with, that improved our business in some way. These techniques could possibly improve the business of each of us - so we share, unselfishly!
The longest part of our call - "Ask The Experts" - follows. If any, or all of us, have a problem we need to solve, this is where we get the problem on the table and ask for each others suggestions to improve it. Was the problem major? Minor? What did you learn from what happened? And how could the same problem be avoided next time around?
For many in the Real Estate Business, 2008 and 2009 have been pretty tough . . . yes? I don't know, sometimes, if I would have truly survived, without the "Little Help from my Friends" that the R Group concept provides.
We finish up with our "Commitment" for the next meeting, and our pledge to each other to hit our targets for the coming bi-weekly call.
It's an incredibly powerful formula. Concise! Quick! Inexpensive!
And the three-person format assures that each member will get his voice heard, and that the professional bond between us will remain strong.
Want help putting a group like this together - in Real Estate or any professional business? Write back and let me know - I'll help you set one up, and share the format, with the same basic structure developed by Floyd Wickman, Mike Pallin, and their associates and trainers.
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
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